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Cheese or Death?

I have been seduced! Never before has such a proposition excited, worried and comforted me all at once. The Fratelli Formaggio offered me a choice; o toma o morte?Cheese or death? I choose cheese. Every time. Which will, admittedly, probably lead to my death, but I'm sure my new masters of dairy know this, declaring themselves the "Dark Knights of Cholesterol" whilst relentlessly flinging blades of tasty fat at me. Not that I'm complaining, two lovely young men burying me under mountains of soft, hard, crumbly, melty, strong, buttery, veined, intense, rubbery, robust, ripe- Oh! Cheesus! Let's just say there are worse ways to end it all.

Now, these boys have quite a stock of glorious goodies that they are obviously knowledgeable and passionate about. Happy to chat to me about their wares and cheese based quests, I've even been recommended a book to purchase to help me get to grips with who does what cheeses and where. I trust their taste buds implicitly and really can't speak more highly of their cheese perversion.

In reference to The Rules, I am not restricted to solely Kentish cheese- thank goodness! We do a lot of things bloody well, but for some reason I find our cheese is a bit rubbish. It pains me to say it, and none of it is particularly bad per se, but there are far superior offerings on our fair isle. I am, however, only able to indulge myself in their British cheeses, unless I find or create a recipe to specifically use one of their other delights, but by golly, have they shown me some great British cheese!

Below are two of Cote Hill Farm's offerings; their red and blue. Now, I was skeptical about the blue, especially after being told "it's the best I've ever tasted", I am a lover of all things cheesy, but can be fussy about my blues, especially British ones. Personally, in recent years, I have favoured Barkham Blue, it is beautiful and far superior to any British blue I had ever had the fortune of getting my chops around- until now.

Oh my God- foodgasm! It is the perfect combination of creamy, sharp and nom nom nom nominess.... It also goes fabulously in a duck egg, broccoli and tomato omelette. Oh yeah.

Duck Egg, Broccoli, Tomato & Cheese Omelette

The second is their delicious red; firm, strong and reminiscent of a Pecorino for me, it is beautiful grated over pasta dishes, or melted into, well, anything. Seriously. Just warm and stick it in your face.

I am looking forward to seeing what other British offerings they have for me next time, I hear there's been some aging experiments going on with a couple of favourites and I can't wait to dribble on the results.

Anyway, enough ranting about my new Gods of goat, gruyère and gouda. Oh, except to show you pretty much the best business card I have ever had the fortune of receiving:

Best Business Card Ever!! ™

They only have a Twitter so far, but can be found at the London markets listed on the right of the Best Business Card Ever!!™

Get me to cater for you!

Having an interest in cooking means being able to facilitate a constant state of eating. Ergo I bloody love cooking.
Up until quite recently I would eat anything and everything, even the things that other people would physically recoil from. Shockingly, as I've now completed my 20s, I've realised there are a lot more things I can no longer stomach.
Somehow I've ended up both gluten free and vegan. And despite it sounding really restrictive, it's actually bloody easy. I should know, I'm a pretty basic cook, really - and just look at the variety of food I make and have available to me! It's immense and "making things vegan" has actually reignited my passion for cooking. Who'd have known?!
Expect a glug of vegan and gluten free recipes, a drizzle of my life story and a rare bonus dash of something I can't stick in my face. I will also attempt humour, so a pinch of salt to hand is recommended.